The Black Castle
by Fudgecicles
Summary: A little boy enters a black castle to find something important. Will he get it, or will the evil of the castle eat his soul?


It wasn't a sewer here. No, here it was a massive castle. It was all the little boy could do to keep from cowering in terror from the towering black, stone building. But he had a purpose in coming, people who were depending on him, and he wouldn't let some building, no matter how evil it felt, stop him.

The huge oaken doors, bleached black by some unknown force, stood slightly open, just enough for the young boy to slip through. The courtyard he stepped into made him shiver, and he would have bolted had he not felt it.

What he had come for.

It was somewhere inside near the middle. How he knew this, he could not tell. What he was searching for, he could not remember. But he knew it was important, could feel it deep in his very being.

So instead of running, he stepped forward. Blackened, burned, and otherwise dying plants crackled under foot, spurring the boy to run in order to escape the sounds sooner. Reaching the door to the main building, he wrenched it open and bolted inside, slamming the door behind him.

He froze in panic. No light entered the room, and at first he could not see. After a moment, however, his sight returned to him even though there still was no light. What he saw made him sigh he had stayed blind.

There were windows in the room, several of them in fact, but they were so covered in dirt and grime that they were pitch black and anything but welcoming. It was nicely furnished, much like a like a place where a family would meet with friends to chat, but everything was black, disgusting, and put a person on edge more than at ease. But what was really terrifying were the _things _that were _moving. _Black shapes, sliding across the floor, looking like ghosts of death.

They didn't notice the boy, however, and so he slowly started making his way over to the stairs in the corner. His objective, he could feel, lay on one of the floors above him.

Four steps up, and a stair screeched.

The boy froze.

The things turned.

Screaming at what he saw on the faces, he scrambled up the stairs, no longer caring about the noises he was making.

Because it no longer mattered.

The things were after him. Shadows bearing grotesque faces of murder victims when they died. Without needing to think, he knew they had been killed by what he was in.

The evil of the castle had got them.

He no longer cared about the room he passed threw. All that mattered was getting away from the things that were after him. All that mattered was reaching what he had come for.

So the boy ran through black room after black room. Down black hallway after black hallway. Up black stairs after black stairs. Each place looked the same as the last. The only thing that told him he was actually moving was the sense that he was closer to what he had come for.

He didn't notice when the black started to fade.

Or when the rooms changed.

At least, not until he tripped.

He went sprawling through the gray room, crashing to the floor and sliding until he bumped into a table. Behind him, the stool he had tripped over crashed to the floor. It took the young boy only a moment to realize he was now in a gloomy, yet nicely furnished kitchen. He started to get up, but the moment he had taken to look around was the only moment the things had needed. The boy was yanked off his feet once more and dragged backwards, black shadows latching themselves all over his body. The boy screamed, but a shadow covered his mouth, snarling. He was sure that this was it, that these things would eat his soul and he would fail all the people who had counted on him.

And then he was saved.

They came from the direction of where the boy needed to go. Two brilliantly white beings, charging through the the door and tackling the black things. They were heavily out numbered, yet somehow the beings forced the things out, forcing them threw the door and back to the darkness from whence they had come. The boy sat panting while the beings returned to him. They also had human faces, but where the things faces had been ugly and frightening, these faces were peaceful and calming.

One was a woman, and while her eyes were black, they were a softer, more compassionate black than the things had been made of. The other was a man whose eyes shown red with power and knowledge.

They didn't speak, but suddenly the boy knew how he had found that place.

He followed the guardians. The last two guardians of what he had been looking for, the boy sitting alone in the middle of a pure white circle in the middle of the otherwise empty gray room.

"Who are you?" the young, clack haired boy asked. "What are you doing here?"

the young blond, still standing in the door way before the guardians, replied, "I'm a friend, and I'm here to get you out of this place!"

"B-but I can't leave here!" the black haired boy gasped. "I don't know the way out, and I don't know what I would do even if I did."

the blond grinned. "Don't worry, I know how to get out, and there are others waiting for you on the outside. We'll help you figure out what to do!"

"But the things at the entrance-"

"Bah!" the bland snorted, waving his hand. "You don't have to worry about them, your guardians will protect you." The black haired boy still looked frightened, but the blond didn't give him another chance. He bolted forward, grabbed the other boys hand, and preceded to drag him out of the room.

The trip back wasn't near as long or frightening as the trip there. The things stirred when they reached the first room, but the mere presence of the guardians was enough to keep them at bay.

At first, the courtyard looked much the same, but near the door the bland could see a few green shoots starting to poke their way through the soil and corruption. Reaching the huge oaken doors, the blond placed his hand firmly on it and shoved it open.

The black haired boy gasped.

Stretching out before the dark castle was a beautiful green field. Flowers of every type imaginable bloomed in the field. And off in the distance, picking flowers, was a young, pink haired girl. The bland pointed to her.

"She had awaited you most eagerly. Go to her, and be happy."

The black haired boy instead stepped back. "What if I'm not what she expects?" he asked. The bland just rolled his eyes.

"Then she'll adjust. Come on." with that, the blond grabbed his hand again and pulled him through the door.

Sasuke woke with a start. He had had the weirdest dream ever. Pondering this, he rolled over.

And nearly had a heart attack.

Sitting cross legged right beside him was Naruto.

He knew then it hadn't been a dream.

"How did you find me?" he asked when Naruto opened his eyes.

"You wanted to be found. All you needed was someone willing to go up against any thing to find you." Naruto stood up and stretched. "Now come on. We've kept Sakura waiting for long enough."

Sasuke nodded and followed his old and new friend.

In a field of flowers a little blond boy led a little black haired boy to a little pink haired girl, who hugged them both on site, while in the background dirt started falling off a castle's walls, slowly revealing the white stone beneath.

**A/N: just in case you couldn't tell, this takes place inside of Sasuke's mindscape. something like what happens when Naruto talks to the Kyubi, hence the sewer reference. Naruto has just managed to push his way into the castle, which also represents Sasuke's soul. the white is the last bit of good in him.**

**and as for the guardians, they are Itachi and Sasuke's mother.**


End file.
